Anyone ever had whiplash?

Some of you know I've just returned from the Army's Basic Airborne course and earned the Army's parachutist badge.

That's where my question comes in.

Four of my five qualifying jumps ended smoothly and rather softly -- I performed the landings as instructed.

But on my third, I wound up drifting in backward, and instead of landing like the instructors teach, I landed feet, ass, head ... in that order. Hard. Very. Fucking. Hard.

My neck snapped like a dry oak twig. I saw some pretty intense colors -- not the brightest of which was a blue South Georgia sky -- and my head hurt for about an hour. That was on Sunday, and my neck muscles are still pretty damned sore. Even the slightest movement hurts like hell.
Anyone ever had whiplash or have any clue what it feels like?

I'm not sure what the distinction would be between whiplash and any other neck injury. I had a mild muscle tear from a car accident a few years back. One recommendation. Make sure you use a headset at work. My neck pain lingered for months until I got one and I was feeling better within a week.

The wife and I just picked up some DVDs and tacos, and a drunk weaved in and out of our lane, I wasn't able to avoid the asswhipe and I got knocked the fuck out.

I got whiplash and had a bad fucking headache for a week. Now I'm just pissed because the dickweed took off and now I'm shelling out the deductible for my ambulance ride, hospital stay and a new bumper.

I do feel good knowing that my Ford truck really fucked up that little shitty compact car.

3BF, congratulations on your rating. Well deserved especially having to survive jumping out of an airplane 5 times!

As I understand it, whiplash involves damage to the ligaments that hold the vertebrae in the neck stable. They are the bands of tissue running the length of your neck on the front and back of the bones that connect all 7 cervical bones to allow them to work as a unit and protect the spinal cord. When the ligaments stretch or tear, the body's reactiopn is similar to other places where that occurs (think ankle sprain). There is swelling and muscle spasm surrounding the injury site and the treatment ends up being immobilization, ice and elevation and anti-inflammatories.

In the neck, the major muscle stabilizers are the trapezius and sternomastoid muscles. They will tend to go into spasm to hold the neck steady and this can cause significant pain with any movement. Unfortunately, as opposed to other parts of the body that can be rested, it is hard to take your head of your shoulders, so those muscles continue to work. This leads to longer recovery times and more pain.

Nah, I'm back home now. It's not unbearable. Just the large muscles on the sides of my neck are pretty sore. After reading Doctalk's explaination, I don't think I have anything seriously wrong.

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I think thousands of attorneys would disagree. And while you may not have amajor disaster, it doesn't mean that you don't hurt. Those are two separate issues, and there is no trophy at the end of the day for suffering. Hie thee to a physician.

On a related note, while I have the greatest respect for the work chiroprators do, please do not let them close to neck manipulation.